Writing Life — Abandoned writing, finished... Perhaps...

I started writing at an early age. I'm not just talking about typical "teenage angst journaling" here, but even much earlier than that.

Perhaps I have shared this story before, but just in case: my mother bought me a stack of blank exercise books when I was maybe six or seven years old; her hope being that I might turn out to be artistic. She wanted me to draw in these books; to learn to "color outside the lines."

For the most part, I filled the books with words, instead.

As it happened, I had pretty much zero talent for art, and very little interest. The only exception was drawing geometric patterns, which I much later learned were actually forms of sacred geometry, even though I had no idea what that was, at the time... I was merely fascinated by the way an iteration of straight lines could approximate a curve, and a repeating pattern could be created.

Much later, I thought to myself *"I did not color 'inside' the lines OR 'outside' the lines... I drew the LINES, themselves."

Yet many more years later, that love of geometric patterns turned into my creative outlet "Alchemy Stones." You can see a few pictures of them via the @alchemystones account here on Steemit.

As a writer, I am easily distracted.

I start something, get going full steam, and then the phone rings. Or I have to go to the bathroom. Or the sun comes out after a long period of rain, and I decide I'd better go mow. Or my cat jumps on my desk and we have playtime.

Perhaps this happens to all of us with a love of the written word. I don't know. What I do know is that I tend to abandon many of my writing projects and ideas, because whatever interruption comes my way completely destroys my train of thought.

To be "A Writer" is really a practice, much like meditation, or Tai-Chi, or playing golf. To keep up the practice, you have to do it, even on days when you don't feel like it.

Today, I have spent a lot of time looking at all those "75% done" essays, ideas and outlines, abruptly abandoned due to distractions. Some simply had to be discarded, perhaps testament to my evolving sense of what "worthwhile" prose looks like.

Others I ended up saving, with hopes (perhaps vain?) of someday getting that final little bit written, and then published. Perhaps they are not exactly new ideas... but a new spin on thoughts I had a long time ago.

Sometimes it feels slightly remarkable how little our way of thinking changes, over time...

In a sense, you could describe the process as a sort of "spring cleaning" of my closet of ideas!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!

How about you? Do you save old unfinished writing drafts? Or do you usually throw them away and start over? Do leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 2023.03.22 23:34 PST
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